– It is permissible to hope – E24

– We get nothing in return for huge oil revenues. The krone has become a “foolish” currency, says chief economist Jan Ludvig Andreassen at Eika Gruppen.

An eventful week awaits for the world’s markets. Inflation figures, job figures and interest rate decisions are among the events that will mark the week.

Both the Norwegian and American central banks will hold interest rate meetings, and may then come up with new signals for the further interest rate path. First up is the USA on Wednesday.

Normally, Norges Bank’s interest rate decision would come on Thursday at 10 a.m., but this time it will happen a day later.

No interest rate changes are expected at this week’s meetings.

According to Chief Economist Andreassen at Eika Gruppen, there is no doubt what will be the most important for your and my wallet here in Norway, and that is Friday’s interest rate decision from Norges Bank.

He believes that there is one factor that will be decisive for the interest rate path in the coming months.

– As Norwegians, we will return to this discussion about the krone exchange rate. The krona has become a “fox-dilter” currency, which really only fiddles with what the Swedes come up with. We don’t get anything in return for huge oil revenues, he believes.

There is speculation as to whether Sweden will cut interest rates in May, after surprisingly high unemployment figures.

– The European Central Bank has signaled strongly that they will cut in June. Perhaps this can make life easier for Norges Bank. It is safe to hope that these cuts will strengthen the krone towards the summer. However, if it doesn’t do that, I don’t think there will be any interest rate cuts in Norway this year, says Andreassen.

– Will drive the stock markets further

The US central bank will also make its interest rate decision this week. Great excitement is then attached to what central bank governor Jerome Powell will signal about a possible cut in September.

Andreassen believes that the signals from the Fed and the job figures due on Friday will be decisive for which direction the stock markets will take next, after starting the year very strongly.

The jobs figures for the US, or nonfarm payrolls, are often referred to as the most important figure of the month. 303,000 new non-agricultural jobs were created in the US in March.

– At the start of the year, the whole picture was an expectation and belief in interest rate cuts in the USA. This also drove the stock market. Now it will be exciting to follow the Nonfarm figures coming this week. They will drive this further. I have faith in interest rate cuts in the US this year, says the economist.

Together with the job figures, there are also figures for wage growth in the US. This can often provide a clue as to how inflation will develop further.

The results season rolls on

In addition, the results season is ticking on at Oslo Børs. Last week, Equinor was able to say that the money is pouring in.

This week, among others, Telenor, Orkla and Kongsberg Gruppen will open their accounting books. In the US, the stock market giants Amazon and Apple will present their figures on Tuesday and Thursday respectively.

In the US, there were major fluctuations earlier in the week after several of the world’s largest companies presented their results. Tesla rose sharply after the company announced that new models will arrive next year, and there was jubilation when Alphabet announced its first ever dividend.